


Road Music

by achillesep



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Depression, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Road Trips, but only very mild angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:55:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27792637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/achillesep/pseuds/achillesep
Summary: nico and leo running from the past and healing together
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Leo Valdez
Comments: 10
Kudos: 65





	Road Music

**Author's Note:**

> based off the poem road music by richard siken :)

I

It’s a perfect day.

The sky is a glaring shade of pale blue, there are only a few clouds in the sky and they hang low, fluffy, soft, and the sun is bright but white...not yellow the way it’s yellow when there’s too much smoke in the air. Nico had pulled the car over to a shoulder because it really was a perfect day with perfect weather and a perfect, green, and empty landscape. Leo feels like a stain against it. 

Everything is manicured, a painting—there’s Nico in the foreground, with his ratty black t-shirt and cargo pants, looking up at the clouds, who he fits because he’s perfect to Leo.

There’s a dull pain in Leo’s forehead and he can’t bring himself to smile despite how perfect the day is. 

Perfect, perfect, perfect. 

They’re not sure where the road goes, they’re just going with it. Leaving. Running. It’s all the same. 

Who knows where they’ll end up? As long as they have each other and as long as Leo doesn’t fuck up and blather on and say something that he meant to be funny but it wasn’t really and Nico doesn’t look at him the way he always looks at him when that happens and as long as the next time Leo’s an idiot Nico doesn’t decide that he can’t take it anymore and as long as Nico doesn't tell Leo to leave and doesn’t make Leo travel down the empty road alone, Leo will be okay. If he does, Leo could always call Jason but Jason’s busy. And part of the problem. 

Nico crouches down to sit in the grass and does, cross-legged, peering into the soil. 

Leo looks out towards the horizon. They’ve been driving for a long time. Just driving. Two boys in love striking across America searching for something they won’t name. Home. A dream. A place that doesn’t exist. 

It’s hard to picture the future or anything beyond the horizon. All Leo knows is that he loves Nico and doesn’t want to leave him and maybe Nico loves Leo too and won’t leave him either and they’ll be all they have, lonely together until Nico gets fed up or Leo’s luck runs out and gets them both killed.

Nico looks back at Leo, smiling softly and holding out his index finger.

“Look,” Nico says. “A ladybug.”

Leo forgets to look both ways before crossing the street but it’s okay.

He sits down next to Nico and puts his finger next to his, the ladybug crawling onto it.

“I think it means good luck,” Nico says. Leo leans his head on Nico’s shoulder and smiles. He wishes he could stay here forever—this perfect meadow, under this perfect sky, with this perfect boy who’s too good for him but he hasn’t realized that yet so it’s okay.

“Then we should get some more and make a ladybug stew to eat the luck and become the luckiest people alive.” 

Leo can’t see Nico’s expression but feels the other boy press a kiss into his hair.

“Idiot,” Nico whispers. 

Leo’s hands shake and Nico notices so he intertwines his fingers with Leo’s free hand.

“Your hands are cold,” Nico says, frowning.

“Hmm...weird,” Leo says. The ladybug flies away, off into the horizon, the unimaginable future.

Leo can feel Nico turn as he places his chin on the top of Leo’s head. 

“Whatcha lookin’ at, sunshine?” Leo asks, eyes emptily gazing towards the always far-away mountain range. They’ve been driving for two days and it always looks that same distance away. Untouchable. Grand.

“Just looking back.” Nico squeezes Leo’s shoulder. A headphone dangles in front of Nico’s chest and Leo takes it and puts it in his ear. They lay down in the dirt and stare up at the bright blue sky that looks like it's something out of a picture and not something from real life. It's not nearly dreary enough. 

Leo puts his hands in Nico’s again and listens to the music from the other boy’s mp3 player.

_The grass where you laid left a bed in your shape_

_I picture it soft and I ache._

II

Leo wakes up to Nico crying. They’re in a motel, a small one, but it’s nice and neat and dusty and empty except for them because this is a tucked-away corner of America no one goes to. Leo rubs his eyes and props himself up on his elbows so he can look at Nico.

The bags under his eyes are heavy and shining in the pale slices of moonlight that have entered the room from the space between the window curtains. Nico’s hair is mussed up, crazy, and his eyes are darting around, sad and horrible and red and Leo’s heart breaks a little bit. 

“Neeks? What’s wrong?” Leo whispers. 

Nico’s breathing is shallow so Leo sits up next to him and makes sure that Nico can match the timing of his breaths, in and out.

In, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, out, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, repeat.

“You’re okay,” Leo whispers. “You’re okay.” 

Nico hugs him like Leo’s going to break. Leo does the same. 

“Maybe—maybe we shouldn’t have left,” Nico says quietly. Leo can feel his shoulder growing wet from Nico’s tears.

“Do you want to go back?” Leo asks. He misses Camp Half-Blood but he doesn’t remember it for how it is now, just how it was, just how he wants it to be, because the war ravaged it and tore it apart and it’s whole again but you can still see the cracks where it broke in Chiron’s eyes and the fallen down trees and leaky ceilings and broken seats in the cafeteria. Camp Half-Blood is gone.

“No,” Nico whispers. “But where are we going?” 

Leo presses a soft kiss to the side of Nico’s head. 

“We’ll make a place to go.”

“A home.”

Leo smiles sadly. 

“Yeah, with a cat and a mythomagic shrine and a workshop and a picket fence.”

A tear rolls down Leo’s cheek.

“And our friends can visit. Hazel will come and Jason and Piper for you and maybe even Percy and Annabeth," Nico whispers.

“It could be like a little town.” 

“With rivers and bridges, right outside a city so we could go to the movies.” 

“I could get a job at an auto shop and you could get a job at a movie store so you can catch up on all of them.” 

“We’d be happy like real people.”

“Yeah,” Leo’s voice breaks. “Yeah, sunshine, that sounds good to me.”

Nico lets go and pulls back and stares at Leo who’s trying to smile and make it seem like he wasn’t tearing up because that’s not possible for either of them. A monster will find them and kill them or Leo will set everything on fire and destroy everything.

The moonlight shines behind Nico and makes the back of his head glow like he’s an angel and Leo loves him. So much, and so painfully. Nico places a hand on Leo’s neck.

“Kiss me,” he says. _Distract me,_ he means. 

The war is over but not really. There’s still a chunk of flesh missing in Nico’s arm and Leo will still see a ball of awful fire in the mirror instead of a boy. They’re dying in their own ways. 

_At least I’m not alone_ , Leo thinks. 

He meets Nico halfway.

III

There’s a song playing on the radio and Nico’s singing along to it softly and offkey and Leo didn’t think he could fall in love with him more but he is.

Nico’s driving because Leo’s hazy and sleepy and exhausted and something happened after he came back like something broke and nothing can fix it and Leo’s always tired and there’s always a dull ache and a hole where his heart should be that’s heavy. Everything’s jumbled. Days blend into each other and he can’t separate yesterday from the day before or the middle of the war from the end of it. They pass by hills. Orange hills, green hills, dotted with pink and purple and red so Leo says, “Do you wanna stop? It’s nice out.” 

Nico smiles at him that sly little one and takes one hand off of the steering wheel to squeeze Leo’s hand. 

“Yeah. I’ve been looking for a shoulder for a bit now.”

“Great minds think alike,” Leo teases.

“You know the rest of that, right?”

Leo blinks slowly, yawns.

“No, why?”

“It’s like...great minds think alike, but fools rarely differ.”

Leo smiles and it stretches from ear to ear. “Well, I’m a fool for you baby.” 

Nico grins and punches Leo’s arm as he pulls over.

“Hey! What was that for?” Leo pouts. Nico parks the car then grabs Leo’s shirt and kisses him, sloppy and fast. 

“Idiot,” Nico smiles. Leo could get used to this. 

“You love me for it.”

Nico rolls his eyes but stays smiling. “Whatever loser.” 

They get out of the car and stare at the perfect hillside, Leo leaning against Nico. 

It's so full of life, untouched by horribleness, just thousands of fierce wildflowers that decided to root themselves on this hill because they could. No one put them there, they just decided they could survive there and they did. Leo loves it. 

“It’s beautiful isn’t it,” Nico whispers.

Leo hums. “Not as pretty as you. We should plant some of these.” 

“In our city?”

“In our city.”

“We need to find it first.”

“Then we should go, sunshine.”

Nico hums. “I still don’t get why you call me sunshine.” 

_Because you’re the light of my life. Meeting you and realizing that there’s someone out there who understands was the best moment of my life. Because I love you. Because I need you and even if you leave I want you to come back to me_. 

“Because you’re stupid hot,” Leo says instead. 

“Like a big ball of gas?” 

“Exactly.” 

Nico huffs and moves towards his side of the car. “I was going to grab a flower and profess my love for you but nevermind, you loser.” 

Leo pretends to start crying. “No, come back, please, you’re more than a ball of gas to me.”

Nico laughs bright and sweet and Leo can feel his heart beat faster in his chest. 

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes babe, you’re my forever dude, full homo.” 

Nico crosses his arms and grins and Leo sees the large scar on his arm and he frowns for a second and Nico notices.

Leo runs to the meadow and grabs a flower.

“Nico di Angelo, will you accept this flower as a—a—uh, fuck wait what’s the word? As a...as a symbol of my, uh forgiveness?” 

Nico’s shaking with laughter and Leo feels pride fill his chest because he made Nico happy, is making Nico happy, and that’s all he wants. 

“You suck at this,” Nico grins. “But okay. You’re—you’re my forever boy, full homo. I—I accept your apology.”

Leo smiles and for a second he can ignore the pain in his head and how tired he is and the weight of the war on his shoulders.

“Now let’s go home, baby.”

Nico walks over and takes the flower, smiles, and kisses Leo's smile. Leo will never get tired of this. 

They get in the car and Nico switches on the radio.

“Sounds good to me.”

_To see those rainbows in my mind_

_When I think of you sometime_

_And I wanna spend some time with you..._

Nico and Leo can heal. It’ll just take time. But they can do it, if they do it together.

**Author's Note:**

> hope u liked !! short n sweet bc i was really stressed and exhausted when I started writing this and wanted it to be something nice and soft for once. plz leave comments n kudos they make my day and if u want follow me on tumblr @achillesep !


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